


Snowflakes

by Lakritzwolf



Series: Flufftober 2019 [2]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Building a relationship, Christmas Fluff, First Kiss, M/M, Räuchermännchen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-22 05:03:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20868632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lakritzwolf/pseuds/Lakritzwolf
Summary: Written for Flufftober 2019Day 2: Snow





	Snowflakes

For the first few weeks after the wedding, conversations between them had remained professional, if a lot more polite than before. And with a lot more smiles. 

It was Andrew who eventually had made a move, again, asking Lorenzo out for a coffee. After staring at him a second in confusion, Lorenzo’s smile had returned, and he had tugged at his jacket and had said: _A Shadowhunter inviting a warlock for coffee?_

After a second, they both had to laugh, and the coffee date was followed by a few others, and a few dinners. 

By now it was December, and New York was trying to be festive, doing as good or bad a job at it than ever. So when Lorenzo asked Andrew what he had in mind for their day off, Andrew said that he had been thinking about going somewhere he had never been before, or somewhere to have a cliché winter and Christmas experience.

Lorenzo spent a moment in thought, and then gave Andrew his brightest smile. “One doesn’t necessarily have to exclude the other,” he said and opened a portal. “Shall we?”

Andrew smiled as well, and stepped through the portal without hesitation. 

They emerged again in a small, dead-end, cobbled street between old, high houses, in the darkness of a winter evening. 

“Did we change time zones?” Andrew asked, looking around. Technically, this was a lunch date, but it looked as if they were in Europe now.

“Yes,” Lorenzo replied and tugged his scarf into place. 

Both he and Andrew were packed into woollen coats and scarves, and Lorenzo was also wearing gloves, and was hiding as much of his head and face in the fur-lined hood of his coat as he could. 

“Maybe we should have stayed in?” Andrew asked hesitantly. He was fine without hat or gloves, but it was obvious that Lorenzo was far more affected by the cold.

“We’ll not be spending the whole night out here,” Lorenzo replied with a smile. “So, you wanted to have a cliché Christmas experience in a place where you haven’t been before. And here we are.”

“And... where is here, exactly?”

Andrew looked around at the houses, clearly old ones, and clearly getting older the further they walked. They were in an old city centre, but now a large town square opened up before them. And the whole place was filled with rows and rows of booths, with crowds of people milling in between them. Christmas lights were strung up everywhere, and the facades of the old town hall and churches were glowing against the dark evening sky. 

The air smelled of snow and dirty water, but also of incense, coffee, mulled wine, all sorts of food, and spices and tea. 

“Welcome to Germany,” Lorenzo said with a smile, proud at having been able to catch Andrew so off guard. “To the city of Nuremberg, to be precise, and the world-renowned Christmas market.”

“So that’s what this is,” Andrew replied, and his eyes lit up, and his smile widened as he started walking again. 

As if on cue, it started snowing again, and the white, thick flakes drifted lazily down in the wind-still air. 

Lorenzo couldn’t tear his eyes away from the Shadowhunter walking next to him who was staring at the wares on display with the wide-eyed fascination of a child. Snowflakes had gathered in Andrew’s hair, and Lorenzo had to resist the urge to brush them away. One landed on his eyelashes, and it melted as he blinked. 

“Hmm?” Andrew tilted his head.

“What?” Torn out of his reverie, Lorenzo needed a moment to focus.

“You’re looking at me as if... do I have something in my hair?”

“Snowflakes,” Lorenzo replied, unable to suppress the fond, little smile. “Just snowflakes.”

“Oh. Okay.” Andrew smiled again, but then his jaw dropped as he spotted the next stall. “Holy crap... what are those?”

Lorenz would have liked to know that as well. Wooden figurines, with a hollow torso and an open back, and also with open mouths, were standing in rows on several shelves. They seemed to be hunters, soldiers, woodcutters, or shepherds – if they had been drawn by an eight-year-old and then build by their twelve-year-old sibling. There were also small incense cones that went into the open torso of those figures, and once lit, the smoke would drift out of the figures mouths, which explained the fact why they were all holding pipes. 

Andrew looked at the sign again, and Lorenzo did too, and they both decided unanimously that they wouldn’t even think of trying to pronounce the term ‘Räuchermännchen’.

They were absolutely atrocious, but according to the vendor, handmade in a very small part of eastern Germany, and thus ridiculously expensive. They also stank; there wasn’t another word for it. 

But then Lorenzo looked at Andrew again, and realised it had been love on first sight. And so the vendor wrapped a shepherd into some paper and bagged it, together with a box of incense cones. 

And the Shadowhunter looked as if he had just bought the world’s greatest treasures. 

Lorenzo sighed and shook his head, and continued to watch Andrew move from one stall to the next, discovering miracle after miracle. Obviously, having grown up in the isolated, regulated society of the Nephilim he had never seen things like this before. But what Lorenzo hadn’t expected was this pure, unadulterated joy that made Lorenzo’s heart skip every other beat. 

Not only was that Shadowhunter impossibly attractive, he was also impossibly adorable.

He had no explanation how it was possible that this tall warrior, who killed literal demons for a living, could coo at a pair of knitted baby socks and not look or sound ridiculous while doing so. 

“Lorenzo have you seen these?” He held them up. “Aren’t they adorable?”

Lorenzo refrained from saying that there were far more adorable sights to be had here, but he couldn’t suppress a smile. One of the elderly ladies running the stall said something that made the other two laugh, and Lorenzo aided with translating that these socks might be a little too small for him. After consulting his phone for shoe sizes conversion, Andrew left that stall with two pairs of hand-knitted socks, one in his size, and one in Lorenzo’s. And while Lorenzo could not see himself wearing blue and green striped knitted socks, he feared that he would not be able to say no if Andrew would ask him to. 

He was obviously far more gone than he had previously realised. 

More snowflakes had gathered in Andrew’s hair, and had also dusted the shoulders of the black woollen coat. Andrew remained oblivious, or didn’t care, as he ducked his head under the next red and white striped canvas roof to discover the source of the heavenly smell. 

“You know, when I was thinking about German bratwurst, I would have imagined them a little bigger,” Andrew said, and looked at the sausages that were roughly the size of his pinkie.

“It’s a local specialty,” Lorenzo explained as he produced his wallet. “And the usual serving size is half a dozen.”

Andrew had three of those, and Lorenzo had to force himself to not listen to the sounds he made while devouring them. He was sure they weren’t suitable for public display, and made Lorenzo’s mind wander into directions he had no desire to pursue. Here and now. 

They took a break to enjoy two mugs of mulled wine, and after that Andrew bought two honey-scented candles, a bar of soap containing a fragrant blend of dried herbs and flowers, and a large bag of star-shaped cookies that smelled of cinnamon and were covered in a layer of white icing.

They spent some time looking at a few more of all those wonders, before they left the market and walked down the cobbled streets towards the river. It was still snowing, now more than before, and Lorenzo watched Andrew look up ever so often.

Snowflakes had accumulated in his hair, and landed on his face to melt as soon as they touched his skin. 

_Don’t do it_, Lorenzo pleaded silently. Because if he did, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to stop himself. 

Now Andrew flashed him a bright, happy smile, of the kind that Lorenzo had seen for the first time at Magnus’ wedding. And then he tilted his head back, opened his mouth, and caught a snowflake on his tongue. 

Lorenzo closed his eyes with a small, fatalistic sigh, and stepped into Andrew’s very immediate personal space. 

Andrew swallowed and stared at him, lips slightly parted, as Lorenzo pushed his hood back. Their eyes met, and suddenly Lorenzo was oblivious to the snowflakes that were drifting around and between them. 

“I think I am going to take advantage of the fact that you are carrying so many shopping bags, and kiss you,” Lorenzo said in a whisper, leaning close.

“I’d be an idiot if I wouldn’t let you do that,” Andrew whispered back. “And I’m pretty sure I’m not one of those.”

Now Lorenzo reached out, shaking his head with a soft, little sigh and a tender smile, to rest his hand on the side of Andrew’s neck. “Come here,” he whispered.

Andrew closed his eyes and leaned forward, and the tiny pinpricks of cold as snowflakes landed on their skin were all but forgotten as their lips touched.


End file.
